After the results of a recent survey indicated that most people questioned the role of women in technology-related industries, a joint conference on "Women in Technology" was held yesterday to address the issue.
According to the survey conducted by Cheers Magazine, more than 50 percent of people believed that Taiwan's society does not encourage technology-related education for women in general.
The poll indicated that even 28 percent of the women already working in the technology industry thought that women inherently lack an aptitude for math and science.
However, 78 percent of the women answered they did not think that people at work expected any less from them just because they were women, but agreed that it was harder for women to be promoted.
Such results, according to the magazine, are due to pressure from traditional beliefs and the lack of confidence of women themselves in technology-related areas.
Most women do not choose to study math or science because they have been influenced to think in a certain way ever since they were young, said Wu Wan-yu (吳琬瑜), chief editor of Cheers Magazine.
"How many of you women out there were given robots or toy tools to play with when you were young? And how many of your parents gave you Barbies?" Wu asked the audience at the conference co-hosted by Cheers and IBM.
"Some kids might not have a choice but to play with the Barbies given to them when their interests might be in transforming robots into airplanes," added Wu.
The deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation, Lin Lee-yu (林麗玉), the creator of the little green running men on crosswalk traffic lights, spoke of her scientific inclinations since childhood.
"I hated memorizing historical and geographical facts. I knew I had to study math and science, but there were only three girls in the Urban Planning Department in college, including me," said Lin.
Women do not do worse in men in technology-related areas, said Lin.
"They have to have a strong personality and ambition in order to succeed," she said.
"You have to know that there are some things you need to give up in order to obtain other things, and you need to make that sacrifice," added Lin.
The IBM Taiwan Corporation VP Wang Po-hsia (王帛霞) talked about balancing her career and family life.
"It's not easy being a working woman. It's important to have a husband who respects you and your success in the field you choose," said Wang.
"I used to do a lot of housework, but then my husband told me I was doing too much, that I should concentrate on work," she added.
Lee Hsin-yi (李欣怡), a 22-year-old PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Chiao-Tung University, talked about how well she fitted into the male-dominated environment at school.
"The few girls in my department tend to stick together," she said, laughing.
"I've observed that actually girls do better than guys in my department, even though it's technology-oriented," she added.
The speakers agreed that women often hold themselves back due to the fear of success.
"They think they'll stunt their chances of finding a Mr. Right if they pursue their career or a PhD," said Lin.
"Especially in a field where men seem to be dominant, women are afraid to be too overpowering," Wang said.
There should be gender equality, but women should also remember not to expect better treatment just because they're women, said Wang.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching